In an effort to promote active lifestyles and healthy eating
habits among residents the city has joined First Lady Michelle
Obama’s nationwide
”
Let’s Move
”
campaign.
In an effort to promote active lifestyles and healthy eating habits among residents the city has joined First Lady Michelle Obama’s nationwide “Let’s Move” campaign.
The first steps to realize that goal with the use of grant funds are to begin the “visioning” process for a downtown park, and to start working on a health and wellness policy for the community services department, which would include higher standards for contracted food vendors.
Joining the “Let’s Move” effort makes the city eligible for grant funding and it fits with efforts already in place to promote exercise and healthy nutrition, community services department director Steve Rymer said.
“Prior to ‘Let’s Move’ becoming a national movement, the city has been very active the last 10 years” in promoting health and fitness, Rymer said. “Now we’re formalizing that under a single program. We’re doing a lot of things to try to address childhood obesity and being an active community.”
The city formally became a “Let’s Move” community in February, when it adopted a resolution identifying it as one.
And the city council voted last week to use about $21,500 in grant funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, awarded through Santa Clara County, to hire a firm to work with residents, the Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Association and the parks and recreation commission to develop a downtown “linear park.”
The PRC was tasked with beginning such a process earlier this year, and the grant funding provides the opportunity to start this summer.
Within about a year, the public will begin to see drawings, preliminary designs and a map of what such a park would look like.
Until then, the public will have a chance to provide input.
“We’re just going to take the downtown specific plan, which lays out some thoughts and ideas, and build off that, and make sure it ties into the parks and recreation master plan,” Rymer said.
Such a park would be one of the many “slowly moving parts” in the ongoing efforts to redevelop downtown Morgan Hill, Rymer said.
City staff want to make sure any downtown park is separate from and won’t interfere with the Llagas Creek Flood Protection project.
Plus, the visioning process could build off the volumes of public input gathered over the last year from a Monterey Road downtown streetscape outreach effort. That process has consisted of numerous public meetings conducted by the city and a consultant to determine if the public wants to renovate the downtown street, or even narrow it down to two lanes.
Council woman Marilyn Librers said a tempting option for the park is a bike and walking path that connects downtown to existing trails on the south end of town, which run parallel to the creek. Such a trail would complement a future redeveloped downtown that accommodates new residents.
“I think it will help beautify our downtown,” Librers said. “I’m excited to see what the staff comes up with.”
Equally important to being a “Let’s Move” city is the promotion of healthy eating habits, and that’s what CSD staff at the Centennial Recreation Center are working on with the recently acquired grant funds.
The department is now in the process of developing a “health and wellness” policy that will, among other things, remove junk food from city facilities, recreation manager Nick Calubaquib said.
Staff will spend the next few months evaluating the fat content and other nutritional values of snacks and meals sold by contracted vendors, and even the snack bars and vending machines at city facilities, and replacing them with healthier options when necessary. That means the Coke machine at city hall and the community center could be replaced by Tropicana machines, for example, that dispense fruit juice or other options that are healthier than corn syrup-laden soft drinks.
The new policy could also add new self-imposed standards for the level and amount of fitness activities incorporated into programs offered at the CRC, Aquatics Center and other recreation facilities, Calubaquib said. Those programs include summer camps, after-school programs and senior center activities.
“We want to provide more guidelines and instruction for staff so that we promote health from a policy standpoint,” Calubaquib said. “We think we should be leaders, examples and role models in terms of leading healthy lifestyles.”
These efforts are on top of programs the department already offers to kids and adults, outside the “Let’s Move” campaign, Calubaquib said. The teen center, in partnership with the YMCA, recently implemented new programs for teenagers. And coming Oct. 15 is the annual “Get Fit” 5K race at the CRC, which will celebrate its five-year anniversary the same day by offering free admission in the morning.
